Includes bibliographies and index

By the end of the 19th century, women were sought after as physicians, as gentle, natural healers, and were felt to give the medical profession a dignity and humanity beyond what men could provide. By 1920, the number of women doctors had plummeted, and new barriers created obstacles in the careers of established ones. Focusing on the Class of 1879, Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, this book explores the trials, frustrations and victories of the period

Pt. 1. Between two worlds: Nineteenth-century American medicine -- Soon the baby died: medical training in nineteenth-century America -- American medicine in 1879 -- Tools of the trade: late-nineteenth-century medical instruments -- Do-it-yourself the sectarian way -- Pt. 2. The leaven of tender humanity: women enter the medical profession -- The female student has arrived: the rise of the women's medical movement -- Will there be a monument? Six pioneer women doctors tell their own stories -- Co-laborers in the work of the Lord: nineteenth-century Black women physicians -- Every woman is a nurse: work and gender in the emergence of nursing -- Pt. 3. Her calling in life: the class of 1879 of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania -- Yearbook: The class of '79 -- Give her knowledge: the class of 1879 in training -- Private practice: taking every case to heart -- Teaching: for which woman is preeminently fitted -- Institutions: wide and fruitful fields -- Medical missionaries: ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake -- Medical societies: lifted from the ranks of mere pretenders -- Family and community life: cordial social recognition -- Pt. 4. Relapse/diagnosis: the turn-of-the-century decline of women physicians -- So honored, so loved? : the women's medical movement in decline -- The promised land: women doctors one hundred years later

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